Chapter 6

"Why can we touch each other?"I roll my head sideways to look at Zoey.

"Because we're both dead, I guess? I don't really know. There's no manual for the newly deceased."

I laugh quietly at that.

"Is there anyone else here? Other ghosts."

"A few."

"Have they caused problems for you?"

She shakes her head. "Most of us just keep to ourselves. Sometimes we find ourselves in the same place, but we don't socialize. Churchill Bradley doesn't like it."

I twist onto my side, prop my head up on my hand and stare at her. "What do you mean, he doesn't like it?"

"He tries to force everyone to stay where they died. He doesn"t like us walking around his home."

"Hmm. So the ghost stories everyone tells are true? He does haunt the place."

"Yeah. You heard him earlier, and I've seen him from a distance. I get out of the way if I hear him coming."

"I can't wait to tell Eli. He'll get a kick out of that." And then I realize what I've just said. I close my eyes against the stab of pain. "Fuck."

Zoey's hand finds mine and she squeezes my fingers. "It gets easier, I promise."

"No. I don't accept that." Pulling free, I sit up. "There has to be a way back."

"You know there isn't. Once you're dead, you're dead."

Pushing to my feet, I pace around the graveyard.

"I don't believe that." I walk through a gravestone. It sends a ghostly chill through me, and I grit my teeth. "Why can I walk through things but I don't fall through the earth?"

"I don't know. Muscle memory, maybe? We expect to walk on the ground, so we do."

"I guess. Have you been to the tomb?"

"No."

The odd note in her voice makes me spin to face her. "Why not?"

"It's Churchill's resting place."

"You think that's where he stays?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe?"

I swing around to look in the direction of the tomb, then set off across the cemetery.

"Kell, where are you going?"

"To see if he's there."

"Why?"

"Because I want to introduce myself."

She appears beside me. "I'd forgotten how stubborn you are. This is a bad idea."

"What's he going to do? Kill me again?"

There's an eerie glow around the tomb when we reach it, and Zoey's fingers curl around my arm, drawing me to a stop.

"Can you feel that?" she whispers.

I tilt my head. There's a weird vibration in the air, and the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

"Kell, seriously, this is a bad idea."

"I need answers."

"But not from him."

"Then who?" I whirl to face her. "Who is going to answer my questions, Zoey?"

She bites her lip, but doesn't reply.

Squaring my shoulders, I turn back to face the tomb. "Stay out here. I'll go inside alone."